Monday 9 March 2015

I've made you the moon.

I've made you the moon,
so when you're in bed at night
you can think of it shining 
as you shut your eye's tight.
Well here’s hoping!



I think Hector thinks the Moon and has something to do with cows, as sometimes when looking at picture of one he’ll point to the sky and say ‘Mooooooo’.


As I was trying to explain to him the difference one morning I had the idea to knit him his own little moon.
I’d just been given some great chunky yarn from his Nana Marie and it’s so dense and well, in my eyes moon looking; having been unraveled and wound into a big ball.

I hadn't intended it to be a pattern I might share, but if you would like to make your own little moon here it is. It’s a pretty quick knit to make the structure, It just depends how many craters you add, they can be a little tricky if you're not used to picking up stitches. But each one is over so soon that it feels achievable.

The Moon


A few notes on the pattern.
I've used a chunky Rowan cotton yarn but knitted it up on 4.5mm needles to make it a really solid construction. For the craters I split the yarn in 2, but you can always use a similar colour in a finer ply.

The Yarn I used is Rowan, 'All Seasons' which is now unfortunately discontinued, but the tension is: 7mm needles (as the wool band states), 11st/ 16rows for a 10cm/ 4inch square.  On 4.5mm needles it's: 18st/ 22rows.

You will need:
Chunky wool (any chunky stash yarn will do as long as it's moony) 
4.5mm needles
set of 5, 2.5mm dpns
Toy stuffing
wool needle for sewing up.

The moon

Cast on 6 stitches.

Row 1- Kfb all stitches
Row 2 - Purl all stitches 
Row 3- Kfb all stitches
Row 4 - Purl all stitches 
Row 5 - *K1fb K1* to end of row
Row 6 - Purl all stitches 
Row 7 - *K1fb K2* to end of row
Row 8 - Purl all stitches 
Row 9 - *K1fb K3* to end of row
Row 10 - Purl all stitches 
Row 11 - *K1fb K3* to end of row (total of 60 stitches)
Row12- Purl all stitches 
Row13- Knit all stitches 
Repeat rows  both 12 and 13 a further 6 times 

Row 25- *K2tog knit 4* to end of row
Row 26- Purl all stitches 
Row 27- *K2tog knit 3* to end of row
Row 28- Purl all stitches 
Row 29- *K2tog knit 2* to end of row
Row 30- Purl all stitches
Row 21- *K2tog knit 1* to end of row
Row 32- Purl all stitches
Row 33- K2tog to end of row
Row 34- Purl all stitches
Row 35- K2tog to end of row

Cut yarn leaving a long tail and thread trough the remaining 6 stitches on the needle. Remove from the needle, pull tight and tie off.

seam up to about an inch before your cast on stitches then fill with lots toy stuffing, then continue sewing up till you have a solid moon. 
 I used mattress stitch to seam up, you can find loads of great tutorials on youtube if you haven't done this before.

Craters

Notes on pick up stitches for the craters:

Each stitch you have made for your moon forms a little V shape, for these craters I pick up one half of the V, I'll call them legs.



Step 1 
With a darning needle thread your yarn threw the leg of a V and tie (leaving a 5cm tail to tidy away when finished).



Step 2
Go to the next Leg of a V to the left and insert 1 of your dpns, this is will be your first stitch. knit this stitch through the back.


Step 3
Again go to the next leg on the left of your first stitch and knit this through the back to create your second stitch.


Step 4
 You want the craters to be as circular as you can so imagine a square or diamond shape when picking up these stitches.
I picked up between 3 - 7 stitches per needle depending on the size of the crater.




Step 5
When you have all your stitches on their needles you can decide either to, knit 1 round and then cast off all the stitches or simply cast off all the stitches made; depending on how deep you want the crater. I did a mixture.



Its a good idea when you have finished casting off, to pick up the first stitch you cast off and use this to cast off the last stitch in your round, it make it look neater (see the image above).

 When you have made all the craters with a wool needle sew in all the ends to hide them.

I kept the little green one.

Add a length of yarn to hang the moon.


Here are some other pics of a larger crater I made in a diamond form.





I hope you have fun making your moon I certainly did.



Monday 9 February 2015

It’s all a lesson in reading your pattern.


 A new year and new knitting projects in the bag. I'm so excited to be knitting though the seasons again and I’m already thinking ahead to spring. Luckily it’s still a while off because my spring shrug currently looks like this…


But I’m not dishearten (much), I have put too many hours into figuring out how to increase the lace pattern too give up yet. It’s all a lesson in reading your pattern before charging ahead. I was on such a roll! Too much, I should have stopped 20 rows earlier.

Oh well to make myself feel better I thought I’d share with you the projects this winter that I was really please with.

If you happened to read my first blog you may remember I started my Mum a jumper some time in the summer of 2012, well… I finished it. A very satisfying feeling to finally sit down and get it finished.

 It’s great to go into the new year with no project bags half finished and making me feel guilty. The pattern is, Drops- Rings of saturn, I added a little Dandelion for my Mum as she makes a range of cups with them on and they are really pretty. 

you can see more at 'hints and tips for the potter'


On a Drops theme, I adapted this little scarf pattern for hector. I thought I’d make it a Fox as he loves chasing the geese and pigeons in the park and I had a small amount of this great foxy coloured wool that needed using. I love using up all the odd ends I have stashed. It a great weekend project, luckily as it started we got snow the week after. 



The pattern is excitingly called Drops- B14-16 Hat, scarf and mittens It's quite an old fashioned looking set but Drops on a whole have some great basic patterns to get creative with.

And I have to share these softies that I knitted for presents this christmas. I was really pleased with how they turned out. They are from this great book I got for my birthday Called Topsy-turvy Inside-out by Susan B. Anderson. 











Back to my spring shrug now, Happy Knitting!